How To Increase Nutrient Absorption
Focusing on a healthy diet and appropriate supplementation is only going to take you so far on your health journey if your body and gut are not absorbing those nutrients properly. Increasing nutrient absorption helps your health as well as your budget by getting all you can out of what you eat.
Add Healthy Fats to Your Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants and other beneficial phytochemicals that promote good health. Eating these foods with the addition of some healthy fats helps improve the body’s ability to digest and absorb these important compounds. Olive oil on your salad or cooked vegetables, some peanut butter with your apple, or veggie sticks with hummus or yogurt are all easy and healthy ways pair the two for nutritional benefit.
Include Probiotics
A healthy gut is important for good digestion and nutrient absorption. A good quality probiotic can help support a healthy gut microbiome. Healthy levels of beneficial microbes in the gut helps make the best use of your food as it is digested. Many foods and drinks naturally contain probiotics, such as kombucha, kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi. Just a little of these with a meal can help. If you would like to go the supplemental route, look for a refrigerated probiotic that contains the greatest variety of strains possible.
Take the Time to Chew Your Food Well
Digestions is a multi-step process of breaking down food into smaller and smaller pieces until they are small enough for the body to absorb on a cellular level. Chewing is the very first step in that process by physically breaking down the food. When you chew your food, your mouth produces saliva that contains important digestive enzymes and signals other organs further down the digestive tract to get ready for incoming food. Thoroughly chewing your food helps optimize these functions and improve nutrient absorption. If you are a fan of juices or smoothies, try to have a small snack with them that you must chew to help replicate these benefits.
Pair Certain Foods Together
We are learning more about the different nutrients and compounds in our foods all the time, including how some work synergistically together. When certain nutrients or foods are paired, it can significantly enhance the body’s ability to absorb and use these nutrients. Pairing broccoli and tomatoes has been found to have a greater cancer-reducing effect than eating the two separately or taking supplements of isolated nutrients. Eating foods high in vitamin C alongside foods high in non-heme (plant-based) iron, like spinach with lemon juice, help increase the body’s ability to absorb the iron in these foods.
Prepare Foods the Right Way
Some nutrients are better consumed raw, where others are better consumed after they’ve been cooked. Some foods benefit from certain extra preparatory steps to enhance the body’s ability to absorb their nutrients or to reduce negative effects on nutrient absorption. Crushing or chopping onions and garlic releases alliinase, an enzyme responsible for forming the nutrient allicin. Soaking grains and legumes before cooking reduces their phytic acid levels which can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Water-soluble and heat-sensitive nutrients, like B vitamins and vitamin C, are best consumed raw or lightly cooked on low heat. Cooking can reduce harmful compounds, like cyanide in yuca, and oxalate levels that interfere with iron absorption, as well as making certain nutrients like lycopene and beta-carotene much more easily absorbed.
